Changes confirmed in high school: science courses are merging and research papers will be worth half as much.

BarcelonaThe Department of Education confirmed this Wednesday the changes to the baccalaureate that had been on the table for months, after receiving a requirement from the Spanish government so that Catalonia can adapt to state regulations at this stage of post-compulsory education. All modifications will begin to be applied to the studies of students starting their first year of high school on September 1, 2026. Features, the main change, which had already been explained, is that in the first year of high school—the course in which most of the curricular modifications are concentrated—the scientific subjects will be merged. Geology and Environmental Sciences (3 hours), which will become part of a single 4-hour subject. However, everything can be complemented with four new annual electives of two hours per week: Physics+, Chemistry+, Geology+, and Biology+. However, whether these electives are applied or not depends on what

Aside from the changes in the scientific branch, one of the most notable novelties of this new curricular adaptation will be that the research project (RT) will lose weight in the final high school grade. Until now, this very characteristic project of the Catalan baccalaureate represented 10% of the final grade for this stage of baccalaureate; this means around 4% or 5% of the final grade depending on how many elective subjects each school has and whether they are quarterly or annual. Fewer hours of electives and restricted literature.

Although the modification of the high school curriculum has generated much criticism, this Wednesday the Secretary of Educational Improvement, Pepín Beltran, defended that the changes will not result in the loss of instructional hours for each subject area and that "in some cases, they will even increase." Thus, in the new high school, first-year students will complete 12 hours per week of subject areas—specific to each branch (scientific, humanistic, technological, social, etc.)—up from 9 hours until now. This change will affect all students, as it will apply to all high schools and not just the science one. However, to achieve this, the number of hours spent on elective subjects—which each student can choose based on their university entrance exams—will be reduced from 9 hours per week to 6.

One of the concerns that caused teachers to cry out was that the Spanish government's initial requirement stipulated that Catalan and Castilian literature would cease to be compulsory subjects in the humanities baccalaureate and would become optional subjects. As the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, announced from the outset, the government has agreed with the ministry to "protect" literature and, therefore, they will remain compulsory subjects as they have been until now. According to Education, the decision was made because it "recognizes the cultural and historical uniqueness of these subjects."

Teachers' Disagreement

The fact that the Government has confirmed that it will maintain the idea of merging the science subjects of the first year of high school has outraged a significant portion of science teachers They have been warning for some time that the change could be detrimental to students' education. In this regard, from the platform Ciencias en Peligro (Sciences in Danger), physics and chemistry teacher Sandra Rodríguez insisted that it is "unacceptable for a government to destroy the science education of an entire country" and asserted that the department had room to negotiate the changes with Madrid, but ultimately "accepted them without any pedagogical criteria." They also criticized the fact that, despite meeting with them, Niubó "has not budged an inch" from his position.

For all these reasons, Ciencias en Peligro has announced that it is launching a campaign to call on teachers who, as a form of protest, refuse to grade the university entrance exams. Given this situation, the Secretary for Educational Improvement has insisted that "teachers' grading of these tests is voluntary" and has assured that they are not currently concerned, as there are sufficient professionals to cover this task, who can be performed by both high school teachers and university professors.